Imtech expands global maritime network in South Africa, Panama and Norway

Imtech, technical services provider in Europe and the global maritime market announces that it has expanded its maritime service network with new branches in South Africa, Norway and Panama.

In South Africa, it has acquired the maritime services provider Pertec. In Panama an asset deal has been made with a local maritime company, while Imtech has opened a new branch of its own in Norway. On the maritime market, Imtech is a major international player with 60 international service points and branches in Europe, USA, the Far East, Middle East, Africa and China. Imtech has a strong position in all maritime segments - including passenger ships, merchant vessels, luxury yachts, navy vessels (e.g. frigates and corvettes), oil and gas tankers, dredgers, crane ships and other work ships. More and more ships are being fitted with Imtech technology. For strategic reasons, Imtech wishes to strengthen its service network even further, in order to provide better service to existing customers and to attract new customers. In South Africa, Imtech is active from Cape Town and Durban via its maritime business unit Radio Holland South Africa. It employs over 80 people and achieves revenues of more than 9 million euro on an annual base.
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Port of New Orleans seeks state help in funding master plan

Officials with the Port of New Orleans called on the state to help pay for its $1 billion master plan, which outlines a slate of ambitious development projects to be completed by 2020.

Port President and CEO Gary P. LaGrange said his agency needs far more than the $25 million Gov. Bobby Jindal promised to dedicate to the expansion of the Napoleon Avenue Container Terminal, the centerpiece of the port's master plan. "We need to keep up with our competition," LaGrange said. Jindal asked the Legislature this week to dedicate about $28 million of the state's $1 billion budget surplus to the Port of New Orleans. The bulk of that, or about $25 million, would go to building the second phase of the port's Napoleon Avenue terminal. But LaGrange said the port needs at least $125 million during the next three years to jumpstart the $237.5 million terminal expansion, which would boost the port's ability to process the massive metal boxes that carry consumer products around the country. The facility's four cranes can process annually about 360,000 TEUs, a shipping term that expresses the equivalent of a 20-foot long container box. The second phase of terminal would allow the port to handle an additional 195,000 TEUs. An eventual third step, which would cost another $240 million, would boost the terminal's capacity to about 1.34 million TEUs each year.

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Sinopec subsidiary, AED form joint venture

Australia-based producer AED Oil and Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration and Production Corp. (SIPC) have formed a joint venture.

This is to pursue exploration and development opportunities at AED's assets offshore Northwest Australia, including the Puffin and Talbot fields. SIPC, a subsidiary of China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec), will hold 60 percent joint venture interest in the AC/P22, AC/L6 and AC/RL1 fields, while AED will hold the remaining 40 percent. SIPC will be operator of the joint venture. The transaction values the assets at approximately US$929.4 million. AED will use proceeds from the transaction to retire debt, settle with its creditors and fund its joint venture interest and development opportunities. The transaction is expected to be finalized in the next two weeks, subject to third party consents by the Chinese government, Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board and the Northern Territory government.
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Rough weather ahead for shipping industry

The shipping industry is set to experience a slowdown this year due to several factors, including the oversupply of vessels.

''There is so much uncertainty in this business,'' said Ahmed Essa Hareb Al Falahi, Chief Executive Officer of Gulf Energy Maritime. ''The shipping industry will slow down in the near future. ''There is uncertainty in the market, those who say there is none either have no idea or they are a publicly listed company but we are a private company and we are experiencing it,'' he added. Most analysts say tanker oversupply is forecast to outnumber demand. Supply of tankers has increased by six to eight per cent for 2007 and 2008, while demand for oil trade is expected to grow by just four per cent. Tanker rates are expected to stay low until mid-2009 when substantial scrapping of single-hull tankers in relation to environmental regulations eases the oversupply situation. Banks are also finding it increasingly hard to finance shipping projects, a clear impact of the sub-prime crisis hurting the banking industry. In addition, costs have increased significantly, pushing credit margins up, Simon Deefholts, director of shipping at HSBC Bank, said. Shipowners are worried over what is happening in the global economy. The shipping industry should be alarmed because many companies make their decisions based on asset appreciation.
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Chevron weighs in at Wheatstone

US supermajor Chevon is to develop an onshore plant to produce liquefied natural gas from its 100%-owned Wheatstone project off Australia’s north-west coast.

Chevron said that the facility would initially have at least one liquefaction train capable of producing 5 million tonnes per annum of LNG, with space for future expansion. It said the facility would also provide conventional gas to Australia’s domestic market. "Wheatstone LNG is a tremendous growth opportunity for Chevron, providing another platform to commercialize the company’s significant natural gas resources in Australia," Jim Blackwell, president of Chevron’s Asia Pacific exploration and production arm, said. The Wheatstone field, discovered in 2004, lies 145 kilometres offshore in the Carnarvon basin in about 200 metres of water. Chevron said the initial phase of the project would tap a 4.5 trillion cubic feet reservoir in two of its permits covering the field. Chevron operates both the Wheatstone and Gorgon gas projects off Western Australia, and is a partner in the North-West Shelf Venture. The company is still to make a final investment decision for the Gorgon project, developing in partnership with fellow US giant ExxonMobil. That project could produce 15 million tpa from three trains at a plant on Barrow Island.
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